Mower cleaning trick

[tc18ny]

Something I learned from my grandfather. Buy a standard bulkhead female garden hose fitting from the local hardware store. Punch a hole in your mower deck with a knock-out set for the size of the bulkhead fitting. The placement of the fitting on the deck is VERY important. You don't want the blades to hit the fitting. Install the fitting in the hole and tighten. Next time your done mowing, attach garden hose to fitting, turn on water, start tractor and engage mower deck. Watch the grass fly out from under your deck. Shut off tractor, disconnect hose. Start tractor and engage mower and let run for 5 minutes or so to dry mower and blades. When your all done, take a look under the mower deck and notice how very clean it is. Works wonderful. If you do this every one or two mowings, your deck will stay almost as good as new. Of course I haven't tried it yet on mine, but plan to this coming summer. I have seen him do it and it works slick. I would not reccomend doing this unless you feel very comfortable with the entire procedure. Also, to puch the hole, you must have the proper tool such as a Greenlee hydraulic knock-out set.

 

[GaryM]

Older Toro push mowers sold back in the 70's had a hose fitting built into the deck by the factory.

 

[Junkman]

I had a Bolens once that had that type of arrangement... the water would kill the bearings and also cause the decks to rust out. I never used it, because I knew better, but anyone that did, was buying a new deck in 5 years... For this reason, today, there are more tractors around than there are decks.

 

[PineRidge]

I don't know most decks today have grease fittings to lube the spindles. Wet grass can't be any worse for the deck than a shot of water. A mow and a wash followed by a blow dry might not be such a bad idea after all.

 

[DK_Farms]

I've heard both extremes about deck washing, never wash and it will never rust, and always wash or it will rust. I lean to the middle, wash every now and then, especially if the cut was kinda wet. I made a rectangle out of pvc pipe with a hose fitting on one end. I punched holes in the pipe every 6 inches so that the water would spray up under the deck. I made the rectangle big enough so that when the deck was set down on it, the pipe extended far enough out each end so that the weight of the deck would hold the pipe down. This keeps it from getting sucked up in the blades. 2 or 3 minutes of blades running gets the deck reasonably clean. I know this has a slight danger potential, that's why I am the only one allowed to do this at my place. Please don't report me to the safety forum. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gifThere is also an attachment available in some of these home and garden catalogs that you can clip to the side of your deck that accomodates a water hose as well. Never seen one work, though.

 

[WCarlson]

DK_Farms,
Your pvc invention sounds like a great solution to the problem. Can you provide a photo?
Bill

 

[keeney]

I think the Toro units mentioned had cast-aluminum decks back then, so there was no worry about rusting.

The main problem on cleaning the deck is what to do with the soggy pile of clippings. If you do it on the yard, you end up with a ring of wet grass clippings that will kill the grass. If you do it on the driveway, its a big mess to clean up.

My strategy is to clean it once a year - the end of the mowing season works good for me. At that time, I take off the deck, clean it and check the paint. If any has peeled off, I touch it up before storing the deck for the winter.

- Rick

 

[Junkman]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I think the Toro units mentioned had cast-aluminum decks back then, so there was no worry about rusting..

- Rick
)</font>

I remember those decks...... they never rusted, but they sure did stress crack!!!!!!! /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[JDgreen227]

Back about 1997 I purchased a Coleman Powermate 2000 gas pressure washer at Builder's Square (now out of business)and one of the attachments for the sprayer wand was an angled extension about 28 inches long. It would direct a jet spray at a 90 degree angle to the wand and with a powerful washer it's easy to clean a mower deck or blast off mud or salt from a vehicle underside.

 

[Deerlope]

I think that the proper size unibit would would make a nice hole. after all they were made to replace the KO cutter in some cases. Holy cow a hyd KO cutter would cost over $750.But I do remember years ago seeing just such a hose fitting in mower decks.

 

[Joe1]

Go to your Toro dealer and you can see the garden hose connection installed in their current decks. It must work to some extent or Toro wouldn't spend the money to install it. I would suspect that it also is not causing a rust problem, or again, Toro would not install it and cause themselves warranty headaches. I believe the decks are steel.

If its not directly hitting a bearing or bushing directly, I can't imagine it's going to cause a problem. I would also think that getting the wet grass away from anything that could rust would be better than leaving it there to hold moisture and harden. A good run of at least 5 minutes after the water is off should have a pretty good drying effect and leave a clean deck for the next mowing.

The mess from flinging water and wet cuttings may be another matter, but that's going to be generated however one cleans a deck.